Olympic Marathon Champion Eliud Kipchoge on Monday was treated to a rare show of affluence one of the richest men in Britain offered his multi-million jet to fly the world record holder to Vienna, Austria.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe gave up his Israeli-assembled Gulfstream G280 top-of-the-range business aircraft to Kipchoge and his lean team to lounge in ahead of a highly anticipated INEOS 1:59 challenge.
Bankrolled by Ratcliffe, a chemical industry mogul, Kipchoge was picked from his rural doorstep in a convoy of VIP cars to a swanky reception at the Eldoret Airport from where he walked into the blissful Gulfstream jet.
While Kipchoge, 34, is a household name in the athletic world, all his crew, pace-setters and coach would come to bask in his glory inside the opulent 10-seater jet.
The Gulfstream G280 can cruise to speeds of up to 865Km/hr flying some 41,000 ft above sea level.
What’s more, this machine is a guzzler, gobbling up to 410Kgs of jet fuel per hour! Kipchoge had to make a brief stopover in Cairo before heading to Austria, ostensibly to refuel.
Kipchoge was flown to Vienna by Britain-trained pilots with thousands of flying hours in the customized luxury aircraft.
The plane is capable of Trans-Atlantic crosses and is also efficient to do short runways, largely the reason why Kipchoge was received from Eldoret.
It has luxurious seats that can be reclined into comfy beds even as it cruises several kilometres above the clouds.
The jet’s interior is fitted in America and its lavatory comes complete with a window from where Kipchoge could watch all the happenings around as he goes about his ‘business.’
